Fireproof Your Marriage

Jonathan Bellamy caught up with Alex Kendrick

Alex Kendrick

When it comes to love stories, Hollywood finishes before "I do." Fireproof brought a new kind of love story to
cinemas across the USA and audiences fell in love with it! Fireproof
is an action-packed love story about a fire-fighter, his wife and a
marriage worth rescuing! In US cinemas it touched the hearts and souls
of millions of filmgoers. When the Cross Rhythms team watched it,
there wasn't a dry eye in the house. With The Love Dare, (the book to go with the movie and
a New York Times best seller), due out this month in the UK, Jonathan
Bellamy managed to catch up with a very busy Alex Kendrick - the
co-writer and director of the film and book.

Jonathan: Fireproof has been very successful, but before we
talk about that, there were two movies that you got involved with
before that. You wrote and directed Flywheel and Facing The Giants. Can you set a little bit of a
scene of how you got into doing movies? Because your background is
really from a church background in that sense. So it's a great story.
Can you explain it?

Alex: Absolutely. We found a survey that came out in America in 2002.
It basically said that the media with television, movies and the
internet, were now considered to be the most influential factors in
our culture. Well as a Church we wanted to utilise the most
influential routes and we began praying about doing a little budget
movie for our community. And so we made the movie Flywheel. My brother
Steven and I wrote it and produced it. It went far beyond our
community. It was picked up nationwide by distributors. And we thought
we'd sell a few thousand DVDs and it sold almost three hundred
thousand DVDs. There was such a response from people that said this
really ministered to me, that, well we asked, Lord would you have us
do more? So He gave us the plot for Facing The Giants which was our
second movie. It was actually released in theatres nationwide in
America and distributed in fifty six countries - that then led us to
Fireproof. With each movie, we go through what we call a season of
prayer, and that's just basically seeking God. Saying Lord what would
you have us do? What's the theme of this story line? And on each
occasion He has pointed us in the direction He wanted us to go. So
Fireproof is our most recent movie. And we were just astonished at the
response from tens of thousands of marriages that the storyline has
impacted, that have decided to do the Love Dare. That's just more than
we ever imagined.

Jonathan: Let's quickly do Facing The Giants briefly. You
mentioned fifty-six different countries. I understand it played to
about a thousand theatres in the States. And grossed more than ten
million dollars in box office receipts. That's a fantastic response to
something that I don't think cost you that much to produce, did
it?

Alex: No it cost about a thousand dollars. Which was basically for
the equipment, because everybody that helped us, all of our actors,
and we had several hundred members of our church that all volunteered.
So far all three of our movies, we've actually not paid any actors at
all. And it's just been a ministry outreach. And so it's blossomed so
fast that we have now started Sherwood Pictures which is a production
entity out of Church. It's very unusual, but something that has had a
significant impact. It's been quite a journey for us.

Jonathan: What's been the response from your home town?
Because apart from your Church and the people of your Church getting
involved in the actual film, I get the impression it's also engaged a
lot with the local community, local businesses and people like that
getting involved. What's been the response from the local community to
the Church doing something like this?

Alex: My goodness. There have been so many people that have offered
to get involved and have helped. In Fireproof we utilised the local
hospital, fire stations, police department emergency units, and they
just so willingly helped us out with the many scenes in Fireproof. The
Mayor got involved. So yes it's become something that the community's
become heavily involved in. We're very grateful for that because we
would be remiss if we focussed on a national or wider audience and did
not pour back into our own community. And so it's been something so
much more than a Church effort. It has involved all the community of
Albany Georgia.

Jonathan: Now Fireproof - seen by millions in the States and
just taken off over here on DVD. What do you think has made Fireproof
so popular?

Alex: You know every marriage, not just in our country, but every
marriage in the world will undergo trials or I'll call them fires of
some sort. And you know we're capable of being very selfish as humans
and individuals, we all have faults. Marriage can be wonderful but it
can also be very trying and difficult. And nobody's marriage is
perfect. And so what we wanted to do was put the focus back on
marriage as God intended, just taking biblical principles and applying
them to marriage today. And so that's what the Love Dare is about.
It's about applying a biblical principle for forty straight days. This
is much more difficult than you would think. Bur very rewarding and
fulfilling. And so we wanted to impact the entire culture with the
message of hope and love and something that would help to strengthen
marriages; because if we can strengthen marriage that will strengthen
the family, who in turn strengthen our communities and nation. So
we're very excited about trying to go back to root issues in
re-establishing a stronger foundation for marriage and family knowing
that the repercussions from that will have a positive impact on the
countries that it's released in.

Jonathan: As you say, in the movie, the husband takes himself
through this Love Dare book, a forty day book. I'm just going to read
the beginning of this. In the beginning of the book it says this:

'Receive this as a warning. This forty day journey cannot be taken
lightly. It is a challenging and often difficult process but an
incredibly fulfilling one. To take this dare requires a resolute mind
and steadfast determination. It is not meant to be sampled or briefly
tested and those who quit early will forfeit the greatest benefits. If
you will commit to a day at a time for forty days the results could
change your life and your marriage. Consider it a dare from others
who've done it before you.'

I suppose the question is, who has done it; in that sense who wrote
it? I mean what's the background of personal examples that has forged
if you like, the content of this book?

Alex: Well we were praying in 2005, and we had just completed the
production of Facing The Giants. We were asking God not for just a new
story line for the next movie, but for an idea that would draw the
culture back to him. We didn't know what the theme would be and so the
Lord began taking us down this path of focusing on marriage and my
brother and I began researching, 'what is a marriage really supposed
to look like?' And then we had the idea for the Love Dare. So we began
researching and trying it ourselves and it was very difficult and we
have good marriages; but when you have to die to yourself, when you
have to put yourself second and love your spouse like Christ loved the
Church, which scripture says we should do, you begin to realise how
important and how difficult that could be, but how wonderful it can be
and what it does for your marriage. It drew us close to God; so we
began doing it and inviting other couples to go through it with us to
try it to sample it. We were amazed at the results. By the time it was
actually published three years later in the fall of 2008, there were a
number of people that had tried it.

I told the sr. pastor about your wonderful movie, facine the
giants and i told her to get the tissue box ready. She was
so moved by the movie (as I was and still ) that she said
when she comes back form florida this spring, she is going
to show it to the church at our sunday night teaching
meeting!! she said everyone should be watching this movie
and I agree. God bless you pastor and keep up the good work
and I loved Flywheel too! sandra

How gifted you are in using such a powerful media. I am
sending you a letter I would like you to pray about. May
God continue to use you in such a wonderful way. Thank you
for being faithful to your calling.

HELLO BRO. ALEX,WOW ME AND MY FAMILY BEEN BLESSED,BY YOUR
FILMS FACING THE GIANTS ,AND FIREPROOF,GOD IS TRULY ALLOWING
THE GOSPEL TO GO OUT INTO THE LAND IN FILM,AND I WILL STAND
IN THE GAP FOR MORE TO COME,IT'S GREAT TO SEE HOLLYWOOD OPEN
THE DOOR FOR FILMS LIKE THESE,ESPECIALY WHEN THEY PROMOTE
MOR FLESH AND BLOOD MOVIES THESE DAYS .CONTINUE TO LIFT UP
OUR LORD AND SAVIOR MY LAST NAME IS KENDRICK ALSO I AM AN
AFRICAN AMERICAN ,BUT I AM YOUR BRO. IN JESUS CHRIST AND ONE
DAY I WILL SHAKE HANDS WITH YOU IN OUR NEW HOME IN
HEAVEN.GODBLESS YOU AND ALL YOUR FAMILY
DARRYL L. KENDRICK SR.

God Bless your ministry and talent in the area of film
production. Many couples are hurting and in serious need of
uplifting and encouraging movies like "Fireproof" that
portray difficult situations that can happen in a marriage.
I've just now purchased the "Fireproof" DVD and sent to my
brother and his wife to watch as they are having serious
problems in their marriage.
As a follow up to purchasing this DVD, I will most likely
purchase two copies of the "Love Dare" manual for myself and
my brother so we can experience this challenge at the same
time to encourage and pray for each other's marriages.
I pray that you will continue and be blessed in your efforts
to share the Word with others through your film making.
In His shadow,
Mike